In this book via three key essays, I attempt to turn the issue of mindless automatons on its head (with a bad pun included) by pointing out that “this [very issue] begs a much larger question: how do we really know that the zombie is merely a mindless automaton? The obvious answer is that we don't.” In other words, while it is certainly true that we can project consciousness on all sorts of objects that may lack it (think of Disneyland's Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln or the various animatronics on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride), the reverse is also the case where we can believe someone is a zombie or in a vegetative state when, in point of fact, they are not. Thus, the real issue of zombie consciousness is what is known in philosophy as the “problem of other minds”.